First Birthday Party - Vroom!

Had the chance to spend some time with my close friends whose son celebrated his first birthday earlier this week. They planned a cute car theme for family and close friends for his love of their Step 2 Red Push Around Buggy.

Of course my girlfriend had some wonderful special touches that I thought I'd share.

Chalk board sign next to their front door.

The nibbles for everyone kept with the fun car theme and I was given the task of making brownie rectangles that looked like stoplights. I didn't have any instructions for knowing how much to purchase or types of M&M's to purchase (as they are all different sizes), so just winged it.

I just picked up the individual packets at a local grocery store, purchasing the chocolate and the peanut ones. If I had a grocery store with a bulk section that sold M&M's I would have bought those, as I could have been more strategic about what colors I picked out; the packages have a lot of blue M&M's! 

I like that the peanut M&M's could be pressed in, almost like they were countersinked in to the brownies, but the chocolate ones were flatter and looked good too.

Cute cake on a star cake plate!

Right before the birthday song, whip cream was added to the cake.

Parents Magazine Sweet-Pea Mash on Toast

Found this recipe in Parents magazine recently (March 2014 issue) and thought it would be a healthy starter for Easter brunch, since so many of the foods my family prepares are carb city!

They call it Sweet- Pea Mash on Toast and it was very yummy. Only complaint, I was expecting it to make way more than it did, so next time double or triple it!

Ingredients are:

• 1 1/2 cups  fresh or frozen sweet peas
• 1 1/2 tablespoons  fresh mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons  olive oil
• 2 cups  yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon  salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 French-style baguette
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup  part-skim ricotta cheese 

Look what I used to to mash the peas, this Salsa Master (an as seen on TV product) that my mom has had forever! Worked great though!

I had my prep station ready to go, complete with a fresh mojito that my hubby made for us when we arrived. Nice!

Directions are:
Boil peas for 4 minutes and transfer to a large bowl of ice-cold water; drain.

2. In a food processor combine the peas and mint. Cover and process until almost smooth.

3. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook and stir until onion s are golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Lightly season with salt and pepper and set aside.

4. Slice the baguette on a bias, brush the slices of bread with remaining oil and toast under a broiler or on a grill. Rub the toasted bread with the crushed garlic.

5. Spread each slice of baguette with ricotta cheese. top with a spoonful of crushed sweet peas and a few of the caramelized onions.

And voila - out and ready to serve for everyone.

Staple Stores and Restaurants Closing

It seems some of those staple stores and restaurants in our area, those with the great neon signs, the ones that your parents visited if they grew up here in the 60's (or worked at) are closing. And it isn't necessarily because of financial trouble or money.

Overly simplified, the story is something like these mom-and-pop places made it all these years, made it through the Great Recession, now the owners are ready to retire, their kids don't want to take over the family business, so the owners sell the property to retire (which is now easier to find buyers for the property than it was three or four years ago).

The IGA store off St. Johns Road closed after many years being the only large grocery store for the homes in this neighborhood.

This store did close because of financial hardship, story can be found here.

Across the street is Bill's Chicken and Steakhouse and it is closing at the end of this month.  They still served water in those very small brown drinking glass that maybe held four ounces. Probably the same ones for 30, 40 years.